On 11 April 2024, AG Campos Sánchez-Bordona delivered his Opinion in NFŠ (C-28/23, EU:C:2024:306). The NFŠ Opinion could be very fascinating in three respects. First, in addressing some facets of the definition of public works contracts that preserve arising in litigation in relation to comparatively advanced actual property transactions. Second, in addressing the results of a State help choice on the evaluation of compliance with procurement regulation of the authorized construction used to implement the help bundle. Third, in addressing some limits on the ‘strategic’ use of cures by contracting authorities which have breached procurement regulation. Earlier than offering some feedback on the Opinion, I have to make two disclaimers.
The primary one is that, exceptionally, I’ve been concerned within the authorized proceedings earlier than the ECJ. On the request of NFŠ, I wrote an professional assertion addressing among the points raised by the case. I’m very happy to see that my very own authorized evaluation coincides with that of AG Campos Sánchez-Bordona, and I hope the Court docket will even share it within the forthcoming Judgment.
Second, it’s price stressing that this isn’t a bread and butter procurement case and referring to the authorized construction will be cumbersome or complicated if not accomplished exactly. Sadly, this has occurred within the English translation of the AG Opinion, which is relatively poor in some areas. Particularly, essential paragraphs 81 and 96 are incorrectly translated and convey a complicated place. To keep away from these points, I rely by myself translation of the Spanish and French variations of the Opinion (and spotlight it the place my very own translation deviates from the ECJ’s one by inserting the related elements in [square brackets and italics]).
Background
Briefly, the case arises from a dispute between the Slovak Authorities and NFŠ in relation to the Slovak nationwide soccer stadium. Regardless of having supplied State help for the development of the stadium, the State is now unwilling to buy it from NFŠ within the phrases of the help bundle. This has resulted in home litigation. The request from a preliminary reference emerges on this context.
In 2013, the Slovak Authorities entered right into a grant settlement with NFŠ to help the development of the nationwide soccer stadium in Bratislava. Nonetheless, building didn’t instantly proceed and the extent of economic help was in want of evaluation. The grant settlement was revised in 2016 (the ‘grant settlement’). Along with the grant for the development of the stadium, the Slovak Authorities additionally granted NFŠ a unilateral put choice to promote the stadium to the State, below sure situations, throughout the 5 years following its completion (the ‘settlement to enter right into a future gross sales settlement’ or ‘AFSA’).
Slovakia notified this set of agreements to the European Fee as State help. In 2017, the Fee declared these measures to be appropriate with the inner market by Resolution State Assist SA.46530. The State help Resolution made it clear that the entire quantity of help comprised the direct grant plus the worth of the put choice, and that these modalities and that stage of help have been justified in view of the necessity to present enough monetary incentives to get the stadium developed. In relation to the put choice, the Fee said that ‘The choice given to the beneficiary permits it to promote the Stadium again to the State in case it needs to take action. Ought to the beneficiary determine to train the choice, the Stadium would change into a property of the State’ (para 22). In relation to the duty to topic the development of the stadium to aggressive public procurement, the State help Resolution additionally explicitly said that ‘The development works financed by the grant … will probably be topic to a aggressive course of, respecting the relevant procurement guidelines’ (para 8).
NFŠ undertook the event of the stadium and awarded contracts for various elements of the works below aggressive tender procedures compliant with the Slovak transposition of EU regulation. All tenders have been marketed within the Official Journal of the European Union and within the Slovak official journal. As soon as the stadium was accomplished and in operation, NFŠ determined to train the put choice and referred to as on the Slovak Authorities to buy the stadium within the phrases foreseen in AFSA.
Merely put, so as to attempt to keep away from the duty to buy the soccer stadium within the phrases set out in AFSA, the Slovak Authorities is arguing that the agreements are null and void as a result of, mixed and from the outset, the grant settlement and AFSA would have had the unavoidable impact of getting the stadium constructed and transferred to the State, and thus cowl up the unlawful direct award of a public works contract to NFŠ. This a part of the dispute issues the definition of ‘public works contracts’ below Directive 2014/24/EU (part 1 under).
Relatedly, the Slovak Authorities states that regardless of containing specific references to the tendering of the development of the stadium, the State help Resolution can’t preempt a recent evaluation of the compliance of this authorized construction with EU procurement guidelines. Maybe surprisingly, this place has been supported by the European Fee, which denied that the express point out of compliance with procurement regulation shaped an integral a part of its evaluation of the compatibility of the set of agreements with EU inside market regulation. It is a essential situation and the result of this case can present a lot wanted readability on the extent to which the Fee does, and certainly should, take procurement regulation under consideration within the evaluation of State help measures that contain the award of public contracts. This a part of the dispute thus issues the impact of State help selections relating to help packages with a procurement aspect (part 2 under).
Lastly, it is usually essential within the case that the State seeks affirmation of the potential for having the ineffectiveness of the grant settlement and AFSA recognised ex tunc below home regulation, with out this being a breach of the Cures Directive. This pertains to the ‘strategic’ use of procurement cures by contracting authorities which have breached procurement regulation (part 3 under).
The AG Opinion offers with these points and is fascinating in all respects, however specifically the latter two, the place it breaks new floor.
1. Definition of a ‘public works contract’
The primary situation addressed within the AG Opinion issues whether or not the grant settlement and AFSA create such a set of obligations on NFŠ as beneficiary of the help and developer of the stadium that, in actuality, they quantity to the unlawful direct award of a public works contract for the development of the stadium. There are three important points that require detailed consideration:
whether or not the contractor had assumed a legally enforceable direct or oblique obligation to hold out the works;
whether or not the works needs to be executed in accordance with the necessities specified by the contracting authority, which thus had decisive affect over the undertaking; and
whether or not the contracting authority would get hold of a direct financial profit.
The AG Opinion gives a useful abstract of the case regulation on these points (see paras 52-54) and extra steering on methods to apply them within the case, elevating important questions on whether or not these standards have been met—though the ultimate evaluation should be carried out by the referring courtroom.
Legally Enforceable Obligation
First, the Opinion stresses that it’s unclear that NFŠ was positioned below a legally enforceable obligation to construct and switch the stadium because of the grant settlement and AFSA. Importantly, the AG distinguishes the existence of an enforceable obligation to hold out the works from the existence of authorized penalties from deciding not to take action. Because the Opinion makes clear, the easy existence of the agreements to subsidise the event of the stadium doesn’t ‘help the inference that the Slovak State would have any proper to take authorized motion towards NFŠ to compel it to construct the stadium ought to that enterprise finally determine not to take action. [A different issue is whether], in that occasion, NFŠ wouldn’t have acquired the grant, or would have misplaced it, or would [have been] obliged to pay it again. This in itself, nevertheless, has nothing to do with the efficiency of a works contract’ (para 59).
That is essential as a result of it units the edge at which a ‘dedication’ to hold out works turns into a legally enforceable obligation for the needs of EU public procurement regulation. It displays an understanding that there must be a proper (in precept) to require particular efficiency (efficiency in natura), not solely the existence of authorized penalties arising from a choice to not comply with by with such a dedication. That is additional supported in the truth that ‘the mere grant of a State subsidy involving the [disbursement] of public funds (within the current case, for the aim of developing a stadium) doesn’t in itself quantity to the conclusion of a public works contract. As recital 4 of Directive 2014/24 states, “the Union guidelines on public procurement should not supposed to cowl all types of disbursement of public funds, however solely these aimed on the acquisition of works, provides or providers for consideration via a public contract”’ (para 48, underline emphasis within the authentic).
The Opinion additional stresses that:
to ensure that there to be a real works contract, it’s important that the profitable tenderer ought to particularly tackle the duty to hold out the works forming the topic of the acquisition and that that obligation needs to be legally enforceable [in court]. The contracting authority … should purchase the [building] on which the works are carried out and, [where applicable], [be able to] take authorized motion [in court] to compel the tenderer awarded the contract to [transfer it], if it holds [legal title covering the encumbrance of the works for the purposes of public use] (para 60, underline emphasis within the authentic).
This issues the authorized enforceability of the put choice from the attitude of the State. In that regard, will probably be crucial for the referring courtroom to determine ‘whether or not NFŠ, as soon as the sports activities infrastructure had been constructed, had a legally enforceable obligation to switch it to the Slovak State, which the latter may assert’ (para 61). The Opinion means that that is extremely implausible, provided that ‘all of the indications are that the settlement to enter right into a future gross sales settlement gave NFŠ the choice both to stay the proprietor of the stadium and proceed to function it (or assign its operation to 3rd events), or to switch it [to] the Slovak State, if [doing so suited that undertaking]’ (para 62).
Furthermore, and it is a crucially fascinating side of the case, the Opinion stresses that the evaluation of the authorized enforceability of the put choice had already been the article of study by the European Fee in its State help choice and that the Fee had confirmed that it enabled NFŠ ‘ (however doesn’t oblige it) to promote the infrastructure to the Slovak State if that enterprise needs to take action’ (para 63). This will probably be notably related in view of the results of the State help Resolution mentioned in part 2 under.
Specs by the Contracting Authority
A second situation of relevance within the case is that the help bundle required for the stadium to fulfill ‘UEFA Laws on the development of class 4 stadiums and people contained within the basic Slovak guidelines on sports activities infrastructure tasks’ (para 65). This raises the query whether or not the contracting authority may train ‘decisive affect over the development undertaking’ by requiring compliance with these necessities (ibid) and collaborating in a monitoring committee. The Opinion focuses on the fabric affect of these circumstances on the event of the undertaking.
Curiously, the Opinion stresses that ‘UEFA standards … include quite a lot of necessary parameters in relation to the minimal structural necessities which a stadium should meet so as to be labeled in a sure class. Nonetheless, these standards are amenable to a wide range of architectural options that may be developed inside very broad margins {of professional} creativity’; and that ‘The design of soccer stadiums that adjust to the UEFA standards permits for an in depth vary of inventive alternate options, each within the exterior configuration of the stadium and within the structuring of its inside facilities. These standards don’t … comprise the detailed technical options which a real proprietor of the work may impose on the tenderer awarded the contract’ (paras 66-67, reference omitted).
This a part of the Opinion is fascinating within the context of drawing the boundaries between actual property transactions that will probably be caught or not by the procurement guidelines as a result of it involves develop the steering supplied by earlier case regulation (lately C‑537/19, EU:C:2021:319) on the extent to which the specs have to be sufficiently detailed to exceed the standard necessities of a tenant (C‑536/07, EU:C:2009:664). The additional clarification is, in my opinion, that the specs needs to be resembling to considerably constrain or predetermine architectural options within the design of the works.
Direct Financial Profit to the Contracting Authority
The Opinion immediately refers back to the case regulation on the necessity that ‘In a public works contract, the contracting authority receives a service consisting of the realisation of works which it seeks to acquire and which has a direct financial profit for it’ (para 52). In that regard, the Opinion stresses that it’s not enough for the Slovak State to have an ‘curiosity (and subsequent oblique profit) … confined to the generic promotion of the nationwide sport’ (para 64). That is additionally essential as a result of it clarifies the edge of ‘directness’ and magnitude of the curiosity that should come up for a authorized transaction to be classed as a public contract.
2. Impact of State help selections relating to help packages with a procurement aspect
Maybe essentially the most fascinating situation that the AG Opinion offers with is the extent to which a State help Resolution declaring a authorized construction with specific procurement implications appropriate with the inner market pre-empts a separate evaluation of its compliance with EU public procurement regulation.
As talked about above, within the NFŠ case, the State help notification had supplied particulars on the grant settlement and AFSA, and made it specific that the beneficiary of the help would run public tenders for the aggressive award of contracts for the backed works. The Fee explicitly referred to this within the Resolution, indicating that ‘The development works financed by the grant … will probably be topic to a aggressive course of, respecting the relevant procurement guidelines’.
As a place to begin, AG Campos stresses that, consequently, any evaluation of compliance with EU regulation can’t ignore ‘the issues set out by the Fee in Resolution SA.46530 in reference to the content material of the grant settlement and the settlement to enter right into a future gross sales settlement, the place it discovered that, by these agreements, the Slovak State had granted public help appropriate with the inner market’ (para 47).
In additional element, the AG stresses that ‘the Fee examined the grant settlement and the settlement to enter right into a future gross sales settlement. In Resolution SA.46530, it evaluated the general public help related to these agreements and declared it to be appropriate with the inner market’ and that ‘A studying of paragraph 8 reveals that what mattered to the Fee was that the building of the stadium (which represents the very essence of a works contract, whether or not public or personal) needs to be [subjected to] a aggressive course of respecting the principles relevant to public contracts’ (para 72, reference omitted, and para 74, underline emphasis within the authentic).
The AG burdened that the Fee confirmed that this was ‘a vital situation for the compatibility of the help with the inner market’ (para 73). This led the AG to search out that the State help Resolution had the impact of triggering the appliance of the EU procurement guidelines by NFŠ, ‘which was put in a scenario analogous to that of a contracting authority’ (para 75) and, implicitly, that compliance with EU procurement regulation involved the contract/s for the works to be tendered by NFŠ, not the award of the State help to NFŠ.
Crucially, AG Campos spelled out the implications of such consideration by the Fee of the procurement implications of the State help bundle throughout the process for State help management. In his view:
The Fee can actively intervene in defence of competitors the place public procurement doesn’t adjust to the principles laid down in, inter alia, Directive 2014/24 so as to safeguard this goal [to ensure that “public procurement is opened up to competition”]. I don’t see any motive why it shouldn’t achieve this when confronted with an examination of the viability of State help measures ensuing from agreements concluded by public authorities with personal entities.
Particularly, it’s my view that the Fee couldn’t have failed to look at whether or not the shape during which the general public help granted to NFŠ was structured masked the existence of a public contract which ought to have been put out to tender. To my thoughts, it did so implicitly, which explains paragraph 8 of its Resolution SA.46530.
Briefly, Resolution SA.46530 relies on the premiss that there was no obligation to switch possession of the stadium to the Slovak Republic. That assumption, to which I’ve already referred, can’t be referred to as into query by the referring courtroom, which should respect the Fee’s evaluation of the components figuring out the existence of State help (paras 77-79, underline emphasis within the authentic, different emphasis added).
This units out two essential implications. The primary one, of comparatively extra restricted scope however essential sensible significance, is that as an implicit impact of the Fee’s monopoly of enforcement of the State help guidelines, a earlier State help choice does preclude a recent evaluation of a authorized construction for the needs of its compliance with public procurement regulation. A nationwide courtroom referred to as upon to evaluate such authorized construction can’t name the Fee’s evaluation and should respect the Fee’s evaluation of the components figuring out the existence of State help. Within the NFŠ case, provided that the Fee had clearly assessed the put choice as totally discretionary for NFŠ, it’s not now attainable for the referring courtroom to deviate from that evaluation and take into account that it established an obligation legally enforceable by the Slovak Authorities. This carries the extra implication that the authorized construction can’t be classed as a public works contract for the needs of Directive 2014/24/EU.
Due to this fact, on this level, the AG may have been clearer and made it specific that, even when the referring courtroom is in precept tasked with the clarification of the related circumstances and their authorized classification, on this case and given the prior binding evaluation of the Fee, it’s not attainable to depend on the put choice below AFSA to class the authorized construction as a public works contract as a result of there was no legally binding obligation in regards to the switch of the stadium. Nonetheless, this conclusion is apparent from the joint studying of paras 63 and 79 of the Opinion.
The second implication is that, by means of precept, there’s a basic obligation for the Fee to evaluate the compatibility with the EU public procurement regulation of State help measures which have procurement implications. I feel it is a clarification of the present case regulation on the responsibility on the Fee to evaluate State help measures for compliance with different units of EU inside market regulation and a really welcome growth given the very shut connection between State help and procurement, as evidenced amongst different sources within the Fee’s steering on the notion of State help.
3. ‘Strategic’ use of procurement cures by contracting authorities
A last situation which can be very fascinating is that the case gives a really unusual set of circumstances whereby the identical authority that had granted State help and accepted the legality of the authorized construction creating the put choice below which it could be buying the stadium is in a while (below totally different political circumstances) making an attempt to get out of its obligations and, in doing so, seeks to achieve help for its place from the principles on contractual ineffectiveness within the Cures Directive—with any such effectiveness arising from its personal alleged circumvention of EU procurement regulation.
Of the remedy of this situation within the AG Opinion, I feel the next passages are notably related:
Directive 89/665 shouldn’t be designed to guard the general public authorities from infringements which they themselves have dedicated, however to permit those that have been harmed by the actions of these contracting authorities to problem them.
Article 2nd of Directive 89/665 presupposes that an individual entitled to problem the conduct of the contracting authority has made use of the related evaluation process. If, on the finish of that evaluation, the physique adjudicating on it declares the contract in query to be ineffective, the provisions contained within the varied paragraphs of that article will probably be triggered. As I’ve already mentioned, nevertheless, Directive 89/665 doesn’t make provision for the contracting authority to problem its personal selections.
[A different issue is whether] nationwide regulation gives methods for a public authority (or an administrative evaluation physique) to evaluation the legality of its earlier selections. Such an eventuality is ruled not by Directive 89/665 however by the related provisions of nationwide regulation, in accordance with which it’ll fall to be decided to what extent an exception could also be made to the traditional rule venire contra factum propium nulli conceditur (paras 88-90, reference omitted, emphasis added).
I feel this will haven’t wanted spelling out besides in a weird case resembling NFŠ. Nonetheless, I additionally suppose that this clarification can have broader implications in relation to the (separate) pattern to acknowledge ‘subjective rights’ to contracting authorities below EU public procurement regulation (see eg in relation to exclusion selections in (C-66/22, EU:C:2023:1016; for dialogue see right here).
Last ideas
I feel NFŠ will probably be an essential case and I very a lot hope that the Court docket will comply with AG Campos on this case. I additionally hope that the clarification of the facets in regards to the impact of State help selections and, extra importantly, the overall responsibility for the Fee to evaluate compliance of State help measures with EU public procurement regulation, will explicitly function within the judgment of the Court docket. I additionally hope the remarks on the inaccessibility of procurement cures for the contracting authorities which have infringed EU procurement regulation will function within the judgment. All of this can present useful readability on points that needs to be uncontroversial below basic EU regulation, however which appear to be inclined of fueling litigation at home stage.